ANALYSIS — Donald Trump on Friday said he does not enjoy running for president and criticized state and federal prosecutors for not offering him plea deals, capping a rough seven days for the Republican presidential nominee.
The former president was nearly 90 minutes late to a press appearance at his Los Angeles-area golf club. Once he arrived, he declared himself the “border president,” saying of that issue: “Probably got elected on that in 2016. … I hope you will call me ‘the border president’ again.”
Some Republican political strategists and pollsters have noted Trump often is more subdued at his once-raucous rallies and other public events. He offered a potential clue with California’s South Bay behind him.
“We don’t want this for our country,” he said of Democratic policies. “That’s why I’m doing this. I don’t like doing this.”
Trump focused heavily on the U.S.-Mexico border and vowed anew to finish building a wall along the 1,951-mile boundary, trying to blend his typical spiel on the issue with criticisms of his general election foe, Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he dubbed the “godmother of sanctuary cities” and “defund the police” while contending “she was right there at the beginning” of both as a prosecutor and attorney general in California.
She oversaw a “fire sale of plea deals” in those roles, he claimed before adding that “the only one they don’t make a plea deal with is Trump.”
That was a curious remark from a multiple-time defendant who has repeatedly contended he has not broken any laws. Plea deals require defendants to at least partially admit some guilt.
Democrats “go after their political opponents. … It’s all politically inspired,” he said a few days after posting on social media that, if elected, he would seek to imprison some of his foes.
Trump read from a printout for some time, criticizing specific cases Harris oversaw as a San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general. He used them to pan her for seeking sentences less than the maximum available under the law, attempting to paint her as soft on violent criminals.
He contended she oversaw the “destruction of law and order in California,” and warned about chaos, crime and misery if the “radical left lunatics” are elected in November. Americans are “at the mercy of violent criminals,” he added.
“We have elections that are a mess, and we have a border that’s the worst of any country — ever — in the world,” he groaned.
The appearance came a week after Trump disparaged women accusers during an hourlong speech to reporters in New York City after his legal team argued his appeal of a civil verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse, and days after he and Harris faced off in a debate run by ABC News.
He said ABC News anchor David Muir, who co-moderated Tuesday’s night’s debate, “came at me” and was unfair and “is a joke.” Trump also described the entire country as rife with illegal immigrants who also are violent criminals, at one point offering an alleged anecdote about a migrant here illegally who “carved them up with a knife” — he suggested the “them” were American citizens.
Trump opened his remarks by describing the history of his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes, noting events like weddings often are booked there. “Pebble Beach has the ocean, I have the bay,” he said, referring to another course that is famous on the PGA tour, that he does not own.
Notably, as he went at Harris and other opponents about immigration — beginning to repeat himself at times — friendly Fox News cut away after 35 minutes. Once he took questions, Trump denied losing Tuesday’s debate to Harris and panned the reporter who asked about Republican lawmakers’ frustration with his performance and if he “missed the mark” during the prime-time showdown.
Trump spent much of Thursday ahead of a rally in Arizona posting AI-generated cat memes on his social media platform, a graphic reference to his Tuesday debate claim that illegal migrants have been eating residents’ pet dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. (An ABC debate moderator said during the debate that the city manager told the network there was no evidence to support the claim.)
A bomb threat was made to Springfield’s city hall and other buildings on Thursday, though the FBI and local police had not yet said whether the threats were related to the pet-eating rumors, which started on social media and jumped to some conservative media outlets. Two elementary schools in the city were evacuated Friday due to more threats, but Trump dismissed a reporter’s question seeking his reaction to city leaders’ denying pets were being stolen and treated as meals.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday called the migrants-eating-pets conspiracy theory a “bizarre and hateful smear that’s out there.
“Spreading filth that makes the lives of the communities that are being smeared here, it puts their lives in danger. … It’s just hate speech, that’s what it is,” she said before issuing one of her most pointed warnings to voters about Trump: “Maybe we should not have leaders who fall for fake internet conspiracy theories.”
President Joe Biden on Friday called on Trump to drop any talk of Springfield. Moments later, Trump said his proposed “mass deportation” would begin there, if he’s elected.
‘Memories are short’
Trump also on Thursday announced he would not debate Harris again before Election Day. Minutes later, at a rally in Charlotte, battleground North Carolina’s largest city, Harris again challenged him to another face-to-face showdown.
His Los Angeles appearance and their Thursday jousting about another debate came as FiveThirtyEight’s tabulation of polling data put Harris ahead nationally, 47.1 percent to 44.3 percent.
But a RealClearPolitics average of polls conducted in the seven battleground states expected to decide the presidency showed the rivals splitting them — though narrowly. Harris and Trump were each leading in three, and they were tied in Pennsylvania.
With the Harris camp feeling victorious as the week ended and Trump’s campaign looking to regroup, analysts at the University of Virginia noted Tuesday’s debate was merely one sign post along the 2024 campaign trail.
“We would advise against jumping to strong conclusions about a changed race based on immediate changes in the numbers, if such changes materialize,” analysts Kyle Kondik and J. Miles Coleman wrote in a Wednesday blog post. “It does seem reasonable to suggest that Harris may have a higher ceiling than Trump, if she is able to reach it.
“Meanwhile, Trump’s support has a way of sometimes deflating in the short term and then regenerating over the longer term,” they added. “The best example was in October 2016, following the release of the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ recording, but we have seen it over and over again. Memories are short.”
That’s may be why Harris on Thursday told supporters, “It’s gonna be a tight race to the end. And we are the underdog.”
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